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Trends in sweets come and go, but for some time now it seems
Americans have been moving beyond the notion of dessert with
every meal in favor of the occasional premium indulgence. With
high-quality ingredients, customizable options and upscale twists
on traditional items, the newest franchises are offering treats
that satisfy refined tastes--and betting they'll be more than
just the flavor of the month.

Of all the love-hate relationships Americans have--Facebook,
celebrities, soccer--the most fraught is our relationship with
sugar. We've embraced it, rejected it, distilled it, created
dozens of substitutes for it--and still consume about 75 pounds
of it per person every year.

In the franchising world, entire segments rise and fall on the
public's attitudes toward sugar. In the past decade, while ice
cream concepts struggled, smoothies and "tart" frozen yogurt
stepped in to hit the less-sweet spot. But now something strange
is happening. Even as our national opinion of sugar hits another
low point (see recent New York Times articles on sugar as a
toxin), franchising is entering a sweet-treats boom, with several
innovative concepts expanding their footprints.

While that may seem counterintuitive--and a recipe for disaster
among an increasingly obese population--the new concepts may
actually demonstrate an evolution in the public's conclusions
about sugar. Instead of pushing sweet treats as an everyday
indulgence, many of these new franchises are positioning their
products as luxury goods, with high prices and decadent
ingredients. For the most part, there's nothing healthful about
them, but if you're splurging only occasionally, these concepts
seem to say, then you ought to really treat yourself.

Florian Radke, co-founder of Cinnaholic, a custom cinnamon-roll
franchise, says he and other concepts are tapping into new
consumer behaviors. "People laughed at us when we said we were
going to sell a $6 cinnamon roll," he says. "But if you're making
an exception to have a sweet treat, why settle for something like
a Twinkie when you can have something specially made just for
you? People no longer see dessert as fast food or something they
have to have with every meal. That category is pretty much
dying."

In fact, the same changes that have given rise to fast-casual
dining are permeating the dessert world. "People are done
accepting cheap food," Radke says. "People are willing to pay
more to be treated well. That's the whole thing. They want to be
able to choose what they want right there, not just take what's
on a menu board."

After 22 years in the health-club industry, Rome Gregorio never
expected to be opening a franchise that sells customized ice
cream concoctions. But he founded Texas-based Camille's Ice Cream
Bars after developing a new outlook on the psychological benefits
of the occasional treat.

While his wife was battling a second bout with cancer and
undergoing a nine-month round of chemotherapy in 2010, the couple
found it difficult to be optimistic. On one of their frequent
trips to the chemo center in San Antonio, they decided to see if
an ice cream shop Rome had frequented as a kid was still around.
Thirty-seven years later, it was still there, with the same woman
at the counter. "When we had those ice cream bars, it was just
the sort of thing we needed to bring joy into our lives," he
remembers.

It was after that difficult time that the couple chose to start
their own business, and they had three requirements. "We decided
it had to make people happy, it had to be family-oriented, and it
had to be easy," he says.

Ice cream bars fit the bill. At Camille's, named after their
daughter, the bars don't come out of a box; each day the ice
cream is made fresh, blast-frozen in a special freezer from
Europe. Customers can pick out their base bar of ice cream,
frozen yogurt or fruit sorbet, then an "artist" will dip it in
chocolate and dress it with anything from sprinkles and almonds
to coconut and crushed Oreos. Besides the flagship location
outside Austin, Camille's has six U.S. stores in the pipeline,
along with a multi-unit development deal in Qatar and deals in
other parts of the Middle East.

For the Gregorios, however, it's not simply about feeding
customers' cravings. "Sweets are culturally rooted; they're part
of our reward system," Rome explains. "I think that's
foundational, like the law of gravity. I don't see anything wrong
with what we do. Having a dessert is a break from the normal
routine. People who are doing the right things are allowed to
have a little balance in their lives."

Sloan's Ice Cream, a Florida-based franchise that opened in 1999
and began franchising last year, is definitely a break from the
normal routine. All of the company's flavors are over-the-top:
Coffee & Doughnuts ice cream contains chunks of Krispy Kreme
doughnuts; Circus has gummy bears in a cotton-candy-flavored
base; and Cookie Monster is loaded with homemade chocolate chip
cookies and Oreos.

Sloan Kamenstein's grandfather used to take him out for ice cream
every day after school. Kamenstein moved to West Palm Beach while
in college, then began designing flavors for the first Sloan's
location after his culinary-school classes. That store--with its
green-and-pink walls, carefully curated selection of toys and
insanely tasty ice cream and baked goods--quickly became a
tourist attraction. Kamenstein, who now has four company-owned
stores and one franchise in Florida, hopes the same will happen
for his next franchise location, which is due to open in the next
few months in San Diego.

"I think one thing about us is that we have a lot going on,"
Kamenstein says. "We're not really gimmicky, despite the pink
walls. We have really great ice cream done in a fun way. It's
almost like going to a fantasy land. I think that's what some
other places are missing. I think people want something better
and more exciting than standing in front of a boring self-service
yogurt machine. We offer memorable experiences. In fact, we have
people visiting Florida who come to us even before checking in to
their hotel. That's the kind of feedback we're trying to
achieve."

Growing up poor in rural Northern California, Arleen Scavone
spent most of her early years cooking on a wood stove and trying
to find ways to stretch her family's homegrown vegetables. She
managed to get out of the kitchen and spend a long career in
banking, but in 2008, as the recession hit, she wanted to try
something new. That's when her passion for baking resurfaced. She
decided to specialize in cupcakes and bread pudding, and spent
more than a year perfecting her flavors and recipes.

The result was Sweet Arleen's, which she opened in November 2009
in Westlake Village, Calif. While the bakery and catering
business was popular, Sweet Arleen's became internationally
famous after winning Food Network's Cupcake Wars three times.
That gave Scavone the confidence to start a franchise program,
which she launched in May 2013, with eight territories sold so
far.

Although many people believe the heyday of the cupcake is over,
Scavone says the quality of her products and her attention to
detail will ensure Sweet Arleen's longevity. Her French and
Italian buttercream icings aren't quite as sweet and sugary as
typical offerings. And her bread puddings are available in
flavors both sweet and savory--including dulce de leche, bananas
Foster, eggs Benedict, mac 'n' cheese and corn with smoked
chicken sausage--allowing the stores and their associated food
trucks to operate through multiple dayparts.

Scavone isn't afraid of some sort of sugar backlash--she believes
high-quality sweet treats are a trend that will last.

"I'm in my mid-50s, and I'm in the best shape of my life," she
says. "I hope this next generation has learned a balance around
eating and enjoying food--not eating three jumbo cupcakes in one
sitting. People are starting to look for comfort with a balance.
In fact, my personal trainer just texted me. She told me to bring
her a red velvet cupcake because she's having a craving!"

Cinnaholic's original store is in Berkeley, Calif., but it's
working with Atlanta Franchise Group in hopes of expanding to 100
locations in the U.S. in the next few years. Owner Radke says
he's excited by all the innovations in sweet treats. "Finding
your niche and growing it, that's the whole beauty of the new
dessert market," he explains. "I think you can see the trend in
all those local bakeries that have lines out the door. Customers
are realizing that if they're going to treat themselves, they
ought to do it right. There are lots of businesses taking
chances, and that's great."

No one, it seems, has taken a bigger chance than Radke and wife
Shannon, whose customizable cinnamon roll is vegan, containing no
animal or dairy products. An accountant and baker, Shannon
chronicled her attempts to make the perfect vegan cinnamon roll
on her blog Confessions of a Cinnaholic. When she got her
ingredients just right, the couple opened their store and soon
had lines waiting around the block. And with good reason--the
warm cinnamon rolls are complemented by nearly 30 frosting
choices, like pi?a colada and pumpkin spice, and 21 toppings,
including graham crackers and blackberries.

Radke says most customers don't even realize Cinnaholic's fare is
vegan. "I don't believe you can just put a product on the market
because it's vegan," he notes. "It has to be outstanding. It's
important to us that the product is amazing. We don't advertise
the fact, but the vegan community knows we're here. My wife
developed this product over a year, sometimes crying on the
kitchen floor. It took a while to find the trick, but we've made
the recipe so simple. That's the beauty--we can easily teach it
to our franchisees."

There's no doubt sugar has power over us. In 2010, Seattle
Seahawks player Golden Tate reportedly broke into Top Pot
Doughnuts at 3 a.m. in search of a maple bar. It wasn't the
shop's first brush with the big leagues. In 2003, a year after
opening and becoming a Seattle institution, Top Pot was
approached by Starbucks. A few years later, it began filling
bakery cases at 13,000 of the coffee giant's locations with apple
fritters, old fashioneds and chocolate-cake doughnuts.

But after six years of being Starbucks' house doughnut, Top Pot
decided to regroup and try to grow on its own. By the end of this
year, Top Pot will have 19 locations open in Washington and
Texas, and will start franchising as early as next year.

Lauded on the Travel Channel and Food Network's Cooking Channel
for its "hand-forged" doughnuts, Top Pot has something else going
for it, according to co-founder Mark Klebeck: the eternal
popularity of its namesake product.

"I think you had a muffin phase in the late '80s and early '90s,
and other things have come and gone," he says. "But there's
something about doughnuts. They're an indulgence, sure, but they
don't get old. People enjoy them any time of the day. They can
have them in the morning, or in the afternoon with a cup of
coffee. Customers feel like it's something they can get every now
and again."